Thursday, 23 January 2014

Corporates exclude MEPs from trade talks

Senior executives at Ford, Nissan, General Motors, Monsanto, Renault, Thyssen, Nokia, Siemens, BP, Lafarge, Wal-Mart, Apple, Chevron, Erikson, Alcatel and General Electric have full and uninhibited access to them, as do Barosso, van Rompuy and several other non-elected EU officials; senior US civil servants are not restricted in any way from having them in full. But MEPs including Nigel Farage and Dan Hannan, Parliament and Europe's 500m voters are forbidden not only from seeing them, but kept in the dark as to what exactly Barosso and van Rompuy are giving away. I'm referring of course to the working papers of the US - EU trade talks; the deal is being done by the global corporates, and signed away by unelected EU officials without any democratic involvement at all. Further to my post a week ago about the rise in power of the corporates, Der Spiegel has more information - not on what's being negotiated, of course, we're forbidden from knowing that - but on the extent to which national democracies are being excluded from the deal.

"Everything related to the talks is being kept highly classified. Even
though the deal will affect the futures and interests of 500 million EU
citizens, member states agreed to keep them in the dark about TTIP
negotiations. All papers, documents, emails and negotiating minutes have
been marked secret. Only the senior-most party members in the European
Parliament's International Trade Committee are allowed to see
documentation relating to the negotiations and they are forbidden from
discussing what they see. Not even the negotiating mandate, upon which
the talks are based, has been made public. In addition, the US has forbidden the EU from passing along American
position papers, even to members of the European Council and European
Parliament -- despite the fact that these same papers have been shared
with 600 industrial lobbyists in the US."

I suspect that when the Germans realise the deal will give Wal-Mart the right to fill their supermarket shelves with GM soya products without having to declare the GM content any more, and that Budweiser can sell its mildly alcoholic chemical soft drink as 'beer' in Bavaria despite German purity laws, it will be of little consolation to learn that the Kermits can now wean the Septics from cheez-in-a-spray-can onto unpasteurised Saint Nectaire if only they can find a way of selling it in a plastic tube.

Who wins? The global corporates and the Euro Federasts of course. Who loses? US and European consumers, SMEs and the Mittelstand, our cultural identities and of course our democratic rights are eroded.

Oh, the people heard Enoch alright, believed him and supported him. 'That' was why he was shuffled sideways by tptb for malleable Heath, who would do as he was told. People power had to be stopped, it was threatening the 'bigger plan'.

I wonder if this will finally wake people up.It's already started, of course, in that some products can be used by the "big boys" but private & small users are prohibited to employ said methods & products.It's certainly a monumental stitch-up.

Raedwald - if only it was about free trade, that would be a good thing. No negotiation is necessary. Just sack all the customs men, and we would all be a great deal better off.

The problem is that hese correput lying thieving bastards are negotiating that means whatever comes out is going to be in their interests and against ours, and by ours I mean the 850 million people whose lives are not going to be improved by being free to buy and sell what they like to whom they like.

I despair when people talk of free trade and free markets but then let the corporates off the hook, pretending they havent gamed the system, and dont deeply corrupt everythinghey touch. The corporate-govt power nexus is now the system (does it matter what the label is of the scumbag shafting you?).

At the end of the day we need tow ithdraw our consent in everyway. to legal fictions such as a coproration being alegal person.

I understand that one or two people have FINALLY NOTICED this one, & protests (some at guvmint levels - shock horror!) are beginning to emerge.One hopes that the commission & the USSA's hit-men will be comprehensively told to eff off ...One hopes.